rohitg00/agentmemory · error · Error

OPENAI_API_KEY is required for the openai provider

Error message

OPENAI_API_KEY is required for the openai provider

What it means

createBaseProvider throws this when the provider config selects the 'openai' provider but no OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable is set. The key is read at provider-construction time via getEnvVar, before any network call, so construction fails fast. It is a deliberate config validation guard, not a runtime/auth failure.

Source

Thrown at src/providers/index.ts:133

      }
      return new OpenRouterProvider(
        geminiKey,
        config.model,
        config.maxTokens,
        "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/chat/completions",
      );
    }
    case "openrouter":
      return new OpenRouterProvider(
        requireEnvVar("OPENROUTER_API_KEY"),
        config.model,
        config.maxTokens,
        "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions",
      );
    case "openai": {
      const openaiKey = getEnvVar("OPENAI_API_KEY");
      if (!openaiKey) {
        throw new Error(
          "OPENAI_API_KEY is required for the openai provider",
        );
      }
      return new OpenAIProvider(
        openaiKey,
        config.model,
        config.maxTokens,
        config.baseURL,
      );
    }
    case "noop":
      return new NoopProvider();
    case "agent-sdk":
    default:
      return new AgentSDKProvider();
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to e04ba88819)

Solutions

1. Export OPENAI_API_KEY in the shell before starting the process: export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
2. If the key lives in a .env file, ensure it is loaded (dotenv/config import or equivalent) and that the variable name is spelled OPENAI_API_KEY
3. If openai was chosen by mistake, set config.provider to the provider you actually have a key for (e.g. 'openrouter' with OPENROUTER_API_KEY)
4. Set the key in your CI/CD secret manager so the deployment environment has it

Example fix

// before
createProvider({ provider: 'openai', model: 'gpt-4o-mini' }); // throws: OPENAI_API_KEY is required

// after
if (!process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY) throw new Error('Set OPENAI_API_KEY first');
createProvider({ provider: 'openai', model: 'gpt-4o-mini', apiKeyEnv: 'OPENAI_API_KEY' });

if (!process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY) {
  throw new Error('OPENAI_API_KEY must be set before using the openai provider');
}

function hasOpenAiKey(cfg: { provider: string }): boolean {
  return cfg.provider !== 'openai' || !!process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY;
}

try {
  const provider = createProvider(config);
} catch (e) {
  if ((e as Error).message.includes('OPENAI_API_KEY')) {
    console.error('Missing OPENAI_API_KEY; check .env loading and var name');
    process.exit(1);
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: createProvider({ provider: 'openai', ... }) (or config defaulting to openai) with process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY unset or empty string; also triggered indirectly via createFallbackProvider or the providers() helper when the openai entry lacks a key.

Common situations: Fresh clone where the key exists only in a local .env file that is not loaded (dotenv not called or wrong path); CI environments that omit the secret; switching providers to 'openai' after previously using openrouter/minimax and forgetting the new env var; typo like OPEN_AI_API_KEY or OPENAI_APIKEY.

Understand the failure class

Background: "environment variable is not set" and "Missing keys in environment" errors: what missing required env var messages mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• AGENTMEMORY_VIEWER_HOST=${host} requires AGENTMEMORY_SECRET
• AGENTMEMORY_VIEWER_HOST=${host} requires VIEWER_ALLOWED_HOST
• ${envName} must be a positive integer, got: ${override}
• API key is required (via constructor, OPENAI_EMBEDDING_API_K
• OpenAI embedding failed (${response.status}): ${err}

AI-assisted analysis of rohitg00/agentmemory@e04ba88819 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/aa7139fddc1709b9. Report an issue: GitHub.